Advice (Veganism vs. Fatalism).
Thank you for writing in with your concern to the vegans of Tumblr. I hope you donât mind me calling you Tess, rather than by your screen-name, âleader of the free whoresâ.
leader-of-the-free-whores:
âPeople have been eating animals for thousands of years. Dont make people feel bad about eating animals it is what humans were MEANT to do.â
What you really need to think about here, Tess, is the meaning of the word âmeantâ. In the western world, weâve been encouraged to think in terms of a vague sense of fate meaning for things to happen âand weâve also had this doctrine of the will of god taught to us in terms that are much less vague. Do you mean that itâs the will of god for us to eat meat? If so, the text of both the Old Testament and the Quran agree with you, but I donât âand I do recognize that veganism is turning the assumptions of the ancient religions upside-down (Buddhism included, as a matter of fact).
The trouble is that many people have lost their faith in god, and profess no belief in fate, yet continue to speak in these vague terms about what people âwere meantâ to do. Who is it that is âmeaningâ this? Whose intention are we talking about?
Well, for thousands of years people had no access to dentistry. Is it therefore the case that humans were meant to endure horrendous pain every time they have a problem with their teeth? Should we refuse all dentistry out of an obligation to preserving the ways of our ancestors of many thousands of years ago?
A small number of people might answer yes, but the vast majority take the opposite course: we seek every miserable advantage over nature that our cunning allows us âand most people in the decadent west wonât endure a tooth-ache for 5 minutes before getting some kind of drug or medical attention to alleviate it.
Frankly, my point here isnât to endorse one option or the other (you have the legal right to refuse dentistry, and, perhaps, the moral right as well) but to point out the meaninglessness of âmeaningâ in the sense that youâve used it here. If human beings were âmeantâ to endure terrible pain in their teeth⊠so what?
It may have been impossible for people living in another time (and another place) to be vegan; however, it is not impossible for me, here and now. Access to dentistry, likewise, was impossible for most people, for most of history, over most of the world. If it is good, if it is effective, if it benefits myself and others, why should I refuse it here and now?
Youâre going to read a lot of substantive arguments in favor of veganism if you look around the internet (and, yes, Youtube has them in propaganda-reel format) âbut Iâm not trying to repeat any of those arguments here. Iâm just answering the specific argument that youâve made against veganism.
Veganism doesnât solve all the worldâs problems, and neither does dentistry. However, veganism does solve some important problems, and, remarkably, it causes none.